Methods for making appetizing and dentally efficacious animal chews

Abstract

Described herein are chewable articles intended to be provided to animals for purposes including dental cleaning, breath freshening, nutrition, administration to the animal of beneficial agents, satisfaction of the animal's urge to chew, and general enjoyment by the animal. Also disclosed are apparatus and methods for making such chewable articles, the methods including the use of a processing aid to lubricate the article-forming apparatus, such as extruders, portioners, and molds, and to reduce the power requirements of such apparatus in the forming process.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. non-provisional patent application Ser. No. 13 / 833,424, which was filed on 15 Mar. 2013 (application Ser. No. 13 / 833,424 is entitled to priority to U.S. provisional patent application 61 / 625,598, which was filed on 17 Apr. 2012) and is also entitled claim priority to U.S. provisional patent application 61 / 953,357, which was filed on 14 Mar. 2014.BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE[0002]The disclosure relates generally to the field of chewable products for animals, such as pet treats, that promote engagement and oral health.[0003]Certain animals, especially dogs, but also including horses, ruminants, and rodents, are known to chew various articles for purposes other than food consumption. It is believed that such chewing behavior satisfies an animal's urge to chew and that such chewing can have beneficial effects for the dental health and hygiene of the animal.[0004]A wide variety of products ar...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0086]Individuals often seek to provide for both the well-being and the happiness of animals within their care. Animals that tend to chew their food can obtain both of these benefits from chewable articles. Such articles can provide nutrition and functional ingredients that are effective to maintain or improve the animal's medical health. The articles can also provide tactile sensations, tastes, and aromas that, apart from any potential medical or nutritional benefit, improve the subjective or psychological well-being of the animal.

[0327]Note: In Table 2C, the ingredient identified as “Supplement” can be any one or more of a gelatin, a gluten (e.g., wheat or gluten), a carrageenan, a casein (e.g., sodium or calcium caseinate), dextrose, a dextrin, protein isolates (e.g., wheat protein isolate), and protein-containing vegetable extracts (e.g., soy concentrates). Formula S is a variant of formula G in which the supplement is a dextrin, illustrating that dextrin can contribute both to the starch content of the formula as well as conferring favorable processing characteristics to it (e.g., reducing the amount of water necessary to render the matrix processable and chewable).

Problems solved by technology

Many of these products are also designed to be consumable, as well as to provide at least some limited dental benefits, such as frictional wiping of tooth surfaces.

Such products provide relatively limited dental health benefits, in that abrasion and wiping effects exerted by such chews on animal teeth tend to be substantially limited to primary biting surfaces (e.g., tips of incisors and canine teeth and grinding surfaces of molars and premolars).

Some available chews soften substantially upon chewing or fracture into large or sharp fragments, presenting risks of injuries to the throat and other parts of the digestive system.

Portions of some animal chew products (e.g., especially dough-based or biscuit-like products) dissolve or become pasty when they absorb liquid, such as saliva, and can leave stains and other residue on surfaces when a wet product contacts the surface.

Target animals tend to lack interest in some available animal chew products, whether because of insufficiently enticing taste or smell, objectionable texture or consistency, cumbersome or non-appealing size and shape, disproportionate portion size, or other reasons.

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